Follicles on right ovary just stopped growing during stimming

[LewisLongbody]

Hi all, hope you're all surviving these tough times!

I haven't been on here much since my first round failed in August, have been busy preparing and taking a break since then. Started our second round last week on short protocol, straight to stims. We had a really good initial response, much better than first round, with 3 follicles on left ovary, and 4 on right at Sunday's scan - felt like the first good news we'd had in a long long time; we had a really great day afterwards on Sunday.

Unfortunately, two days later at yesterday's scan the right side hadn't grown any since the previous scan, and today's scan confirmed still nothing there. The left side follicles have continued to grow (now at 21 (from 16 yesterday!), 17, and 15) but its like the 3 on the right just froze at 15, 14, and 13. Has anyone had any experience of this? We're going ahead to egg collection on Friday in hopes of collecting the 3 from the left (we only got 3 last time anyway across both ovaries), and some shred of hope that we might get something from the right as well. My oestradiol levels are continuing to rise, which is good (from 3200 yesterday to 5100 today).

Appreciate any thoughts, or similar experience of this; the nurse was only able to say they might just be cysts with no eggs in them?

Thanks all, the roller-coaster continues!

[Krystal_43]

On both my IVF cycles, all my eggs (except one) came from one ovary (left side first time, right side second time) because the other one didn’t stimulate as well as the other 🤷‍♀️ The consultant said it was normal & because the side alternated there was no need to worry. Just annoying.

[LewisLongbody in reply to Krystal_43]

Thanks for your reply Krystal, that's really interesting. It totally makes sense on one level, and then on another you wonder aren't the drugs supposed to override that?! Glad to hear it's common though, as I definitely got the impression it wasn't from my clinic's reaction! It's also annoying for me because I have such low numbers, I really can't afford to give an ovary a month off on vacation when I'm doing a round. I only have 1 tube, on my right, so now I'm also wondering if my right ovary, which is a bit smaller is the lazier of the two, and whether my few remaining good eggs are coming from my left and just going nowhere :< Anyway, thanks for your reply, really appreciate it!

[Krystal_43 in reply to LewisLongbody]

I have low AMH so one ovary taking the day off totally affected my numbers but got 7 eggs first round, 5 eggs second round... just prepping for round 3 & hoping both decide to play ball

[LewisLongbody in reply to Krystal_43]

Fingers crossed for you!! Typical IVF, an extra hurdle to deal with, especially for us low-AMH people!

[Bebe294]

Hi dearI understand what you are going through as I experienced exact same thing in my last cycle a month ago!

I was on short protocol too and despite the Ultrasound report on day 7 of great follies sizes when I went back on day 10 they said the size did not change on all 3 follies on right side and only one grew on left. Again on day 11 same thing and beacuse the left one was already big 21 mm Doctor said we need to trigger tonight or cancel the cycle! She was sure that there will be only one egg if any at all and it was a very difficult decision for me to take when I took all those medication and psid a lot of money and was in lots of stress due to the whole process. I was very upset as I thought definately the scan on day 7 was not right and she wasted my time effort and money!

Long story short I decided to go through with retrieval and took the trigger the same night! Although I did two things by myself without doctors approval just done some research and decided to take the risk! So I did one time castor oil pack on my right ovary for about 45 min to encourage blood flow I also took Nattokinas for the same purpose ( I was taking that through whole stim process instead of Aspirin snd last but not the least I injected myself 250 puregon in the evening! ( I found an article on one or two tria they did one single dose of FSH 450 at the time of trigger and the case study group had a much better results than those not having that extra shot of FSH the night of trigger!

I did not do anything else the day after trigger and before retrieval.

So at the time of retrieval Doctor fetched 4 eggs instead of only 1 however at the end I had only one blastocyst but good quality !

I did this bcuz I was hopeless and helpless and thought I try my chances and this was my 4th ivf and it was a mini ivf ( menopure 150 for 6 days and 250 for 3 days) so I thought maybe I did not have enough medication and this helps and I believe it did , but pls be careful with yours as I am not encouraging going behind your doctor orders, mine was different and I was on a very huge stress but now I am happy I did those things and gave those other follies a chance to continue grow!

However my follies ( if measurements were right)

Stopped at fairly good size , they were 16mm, 14mm, 13mm on day of trigger .

I wish you all the best for your cycle 🌺

[Bebe294 in reply to Bebe294]

Oh and i just saw your E levels are really good, it shows more than 3 eggs to me, its really a good number!Mine was very low about 650 and I think that was more convincing to Dr that I will have only one egg. Although I took femara at the begining if cycle and doctors always say with Femara the E2 level normally shows lower than it is in reality.

[LewisLongbody in reply to Bebe294]

Thanks so much for your reply Maryca, really appreciate you taking the time to do so. it seems it is more common that I thought; from my clinic's reaction, this was very unusual. But maybe they just felt bad for me, who knows. That's all really interesting, glad you made decisions for yourself that you were happy with and felt gave your follicles the best chance, I definitely understand that perspective. I took my trigger last night, so I'll see what happens at egg collection tomorrow.As usual with IVF it's a rollercoaster of ups and downs and as you say, stress, stress, stress! I'm already 1 migraine down this week, but feeling much better now and just hoping for a few good quality eggs and then embryos.

Thanks again for your reply and wishing you all the best!

[Bebe294 in reply to LewisLongbody]

I totally understand and feel your pain, headaches and mood changes ( for me add anxiety for my both ivfs during pandemic) are all side effects of hormones but I hope all in all pays with a beautiful healthy child of yours very soon. Do you do fresh transfer?

You have your big day coming and I wish all the best with great quality eggs which fully fertilize and take . Try to stay relax and think positive, I would stop searching and reading on the net and give my body enough rest and maybe doing some mindfullness exercises it helps your mind be at a better state for your operation.

Oh and btw I was taking sport drinks after retrieval it really helped with bloating and pain. Did not drink water just the drinks as per clinic instructions.

Take care and best of luck 🥰

[LauraEW]

Hi there, I had this happen in my second round, the left side just stopped responding, we managed to retrieve 5 from the right side only. My consultant said this just happens sometimes and they do t know why. I think I maybe rushed into my second round and my body just had enough! I’ve since had a 3rd round and managed to get 18 at egg retrieval- I think the difference between cycles was changes in lifestyle and a new supplement plan. Best of luck, as they say - it only takes 1 🥰 x

[LewisLongbody in reply to LauraEW]

Thanks for your reply LauraEW, and wow that's a huge difference between rounds for you, congrats on your massive improvement in Round 3! Unfortunately, this is our cycle where we've prepared for 4 months with diet, supplement, stress plan, acupuncture, the whole 9 yards. While it may not have helped my right ovary's response to the drugs (my numbers will always be small as I have low AMH), even if we come out wit the same number of eggs as last time, but much better quality thanks to the diet, supplement changes etc., then that will be a really good result for us. We got 2 poor quality embryos last time that didn't take, so while I'm all about 'it only takes 1' (I have no choice, I'll never have loads ;p) that 1 is gonna have to improve in quality. Fingers crossed, as always, and thanks again for your reply!!

[Bebe294 in reply to LewisLongbody]

Quality definitely much important than quantity! 2 years ago I had 10-12 follies and ended up with no blastocyst but this year first round had only 2 eggs which both turned to great quality embryos!

Supplements and preparation are very important. Also for my first few month ago dr added Growth hormone which I believe helped for quality but I did have reaction to that so we stopped after 2 doses.

Don’t worry your E level is really good. I am sure you will have great eggs!